Richard Darwin Jr.
Richard Darwin Jr. was a famous scientist from Sydney, Australia working at the Sydney Zoo. Life He was born to Richard Darwin Sr. and Penelope Darwin (maiden name Penelope Brown) and was the eldest of four brothers, William, Walter, and the twins Benjamin and Franklin. He was raised in Sydney, Australia, where he quickly became interested in animals. After spending much of his high school life studying animals, he began seeking a profession where he could help them, a decision which everyone in his family supported. When Richard went to college, many students laughed at him, as he was often dirty from working with his dad repairing people's cars, and he seemed to space out occasionally, making him look stupid. Much to everyone's surprise, however, he was much smarter than any of the other students put together, and this got the attention of a local news station, where they interviewed him. This in turn got the attention of Richard's childhood hero, the famous American zoologist Prof. Tyler Henderson, who was on vacation at the time. A week after the interview, Tyler had encountered Richard at his graduation ceremony, where he decided to hire Richard as one of his scientists. That same day, however, tragedy struck. William was on his way to congratuate his elder brother when a speeding truck was about to hit a small boy whose synthetic leg was broken. The driver was drunk, so there wasn't much of a chance to convince him to slow down or stop. Feeling he had a duty to save the child, William sacrificed himself and his car hit the truck. Although the truck driver survived with only a broken arm, William did not; he died upon impact. After the funeral, Richard vowed to resurrect his brother through emerging cloning technology, but after finding out that cloning humans was going to be made illegal soon, he put his newly found resolve to proper use, and began a project in Sydney with his mentor and an American colleague, Dennis Green, who would become close friends with him. When the experiment's name was being discussed, Richard was becoming infatuated with Dennis' sister Rebecca. It was Rebecca who gave Richard and the other scientists the idea to name the project Cloning the Creatures of Yesterday. The name immediately stuck, and almost immediately afterward, Richard advised them to clone a dodo bird, and named this part of the experiment "Project: Alice", in honor of his favorite book when Richard was a child, Alice in Wonderland. He later admitted that his nostalgia regarding Alice in Wonderland was also why he chose a dodo bird. The experiment, while starting badly at first, later proved to be successful, as Dennis' latest DNA sample was more than enough to bring back the Dodo Bird. Richard later named the dodo "Hopeful", a name that would inspire the name "Hopeful Dodo" many years later. Two months later, Richard and Rebecca would become engaged and marry, eventually having two children: Robert Darwin and Olvia Darwin, who would eventualy take care of the Hopeful Lands. Richard was hailed as a hero in the scientific community, calling him "The Next Charles Darwin." Many years later, however, his research wasn't going anywhere, as the Protoceratops proved too tough to clone, people lost interest in birds, and he was losing money fast. His wife, Rebecca, was also diagnosed with cancer around this time, adding more stress to his already stressful life. Then one day, Dennis Green came back and gave him pieces of a mummified elasmosaur, which he claimed could be cloned. It would be the first aquatic reptile of its kind to be cloned. Determined to make one last big breakthrough, he and his fellow scientist began working on Project: Rebecca, a project named after his wife that would give him that one last hurrah before his laboratory closed down. Right before the experiments were finished, however, Richard had a stroke, and died before he reached the hospital. He was buried next to his brother William, and was succeeded by his wife and children. Legacy Richard Darwin Jr.'s legacy lives on in the scientific community, as his accomplishments helped pave the way for other great-minded individuals, such as his cousin Cedric, to contribute to zoology. A museum that was built during the time of The Hopeful Lands, called ''The Richard Darwin Jr. Memorial Animal Museum, ''was named after him. It is located in The Hopeful Fields, and it, along with the town surrounding it, is believed to be the sole man-made city in The Hopeful Lands. Category:Humans Category:Scientists Category:Deceased Category:Characters